Italian Lemon Biscuits

Lard, lard - what do you do with excess lard?  After the Great White Lard Hunt of Brisbane, I still had a fair chunk of lard in my fridge.  And I had a feeling it was best to use it up quickly rather than let it linger in the depths of the fridge to be forgotten and dragged out next year harbouring little green men (no, no, I mean little green fungus-y bits).  By sheer chance when going through my old Women's Weekly cookbooks recently, I had stumbled across a biscuit recipe with lard.  My brain must have remembered this, and directed me to pull out this recipe so I could use some more sticky, stinky lard.  Okay, I am possibly more sensitive to the aroma than others (Mr Pickings can't smell it at all) and not being a pork eater, maybe it just strikes me as quite strong, but as I have said before when I made Aberdeen Butteries, you can't actually taste it once it has been baked.  You end up with a pretty little biscuit that resembles shortbread, and has a tangy lemon icing drizzled over it.  Nothing wrong with that scenario:)

ingredients:

Biscuits:

1+1/2 cups self raising flour
60g lard
1+1/2 tbs milk
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg

Lemon icing:

3/4 cup icing sugar
2 tbs lemon juice
1 tsp lemon zest

Method:

Place the icing sugar, lemon juice and zest into a small bowl and mix well to combine
Leave aside till the biscuits are made (I assume the icing is made first so that it thickens a little before icing the biscuits - I made it after the biscuits and it was very runny!)

Biscuits:

Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl
Rub in the lard with your fingers till it looks like fine breadcrumbs
Heat the milk and sugar gently over low heat until sugar has dissolved
Add the vanilla
Pour the warmed milk mixture and the gently beaten egg into the flour
Stir in with a knife till well mixed, then knead until smooth on a lightly floured surface (just for a few minutes)
Here's where you get creative:
Take teaspoons of the dough and roll out till you have long, thin cigars about 13 cm in length
Twist 2 of the cigar shapes together, form into a circle, pressing the ends together so you have a sweet little round of biscuit.
Okay, confession time again!  After making 2 of these, my patience ran out and I just grabbed my star cutter and cut out shapes!  My excuse is that living in sunny Brisbane, doughs and so on don't react the same as in colder States or countries.  It is very clear that recipes are written for colder climes than ours, and so I often have to make adjustments (e.g. when a recipe suggests leaving a mixture or dough out overnight on a bench - hello!- cockroaches/ants/flies/the heat! - get real!).  Well, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  So, I cut out little stars instead; I ended up with 14 though the original recipe says you will get 16 twisty ones.
Bake on lightly greased trays at 180C for about 15-20 minutes till lightly golden.
Grab a biscuit and dip the top in the icing; keep going with the rest of them.
Let them cool on a wire rack.

ingredients

lard rubbed in till it looks like breadcrumbs    

warming the milk and sugar  

lightly beating the egg

pouring in the warmed milk and sugar and vanilla 

stirring the mixture together  

kneading it till smooth (this only takes a few minutes)    

a lovely smooth dough  

roll out the little cigars or cut into shapes!  

2 cigars twisted together and formed into a circle   

stars!

lots of stars ready for baking  

and baked!

sifting the icing sugar 

zesting the lemon 

stirring in the lemon juice 

dipping in the biscuits 

iced and cooling on a wire rack over a tray to catch the drips 

enjoy with a cuppa